Tuesday, December 20, 2011

I am already home for the holidays, meaning that I am no longer baking for one person but that I will certainly return from the holidays with at least one new recipe that has been reduced to one serving (my sister Mia--who is nine, I might remind you--told me that all I do is "steal" recipes from my mother and put them on my blog).

In spite of the fact that I am now in a household of six again, I found the perfect opportunity today to make this chocolate peanut butter cake for one from Picky-Palate that I've been dying to try, and I seized it:

it is darling, isn't it?

I adapted the recipe from Picky-Palate to make two small cakes, instead of the original recipe's one larger cake because 1) I did not have a CostCo-sized chicken tin in which to bake the larger version, and 2) I like cakes with more layers because they have a better icing-cake distribution. While Picky-Palate says that the recipe makes only one serving, I feel like one of my mini cakes (1/2 the original "one serving") was a sufficient serving in and of itself.

Four of us shared the two mini cakes after dinner, and, needless to say, they disappeared very quickly, and not just because of the sheer number of people they were serving. For the first time, someone other than my singly-served self can attest to the fact that the food in the pictures is, in fact, delicious! This cake was very good, especially with the milk (instead of semisweet) chocolate chips in the buttercream frosting and cake batter.

for the chocolate cake
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, baking soda, vanilla extract, oil, and egg. Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave-proof bowl in 20-second intervals, stirring in between intervals (this should take about 40 to 60 seconds). Add the melted chocolate chips to the mixture, and stir until everything is combined. Grease 3 ramekins [Alternatively, you can use three six-ounce metal containers with a diameter of about 3 inches, like those that hold tuna, crab, chicken, etc., or you could use a single 12.5 ounce chicken container as Picky-Palate does]. Divide the batter between the three ramekins, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

for the peanut butter filling
In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter and powdered sugar. Add in the milk one teaspoon at a time until the desired consistency has been reached. If you add too much milk, just add a little more powdered sugar to thicken the icing.

for the chocolate butter cream frosting
In a small bowl, combine the softened butter with the powdered sugar. Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave-proof bowls in 20-second intervals, stirring in between (again, this should take about 40 to 60 seconds).

to assemble the cake(s)
To assemble the cake(s), you have several options. Because I used three ramekins, I split each of the three cakes in half, then stacked three layers to make a cake. I used the peanut butter filling in between each layer and then finished the two cakes by icing them with butter cream. If you make yours the same way that it is made on Picky-Palate--with the 12.5 ounce can--then you will just split the cake in 2 layers and fill with the peanut butter.